5:14brothers. This address (also v. 12) indicates that the exhortations that follow assign the responsibility for ministry to all the congregation, not just to acknowledged leaders.

the idle. The contexts here and in 2 Thess. 3:6, 7, 11 show that the form of idleness in view is an irresponsible refusal to work for a living (text note). Many think this behavior was fed by an overripe expectancy of Christ’s Second Coming (Introduction to 2 Thessalonians).